“I heard the same Arab complaining that they pulled out his grazing weed from the ground, that he owns a herd which he keeps in Dura village, and the old factory is one of the area where his goats graze.”

A group of anti-Israel Jewish activists arrived in Hebron to award the city its first movie theater. But in the process, according to local Jewish residents, they destroyed the grazing grounds of a local Arab shepherd.

According to a JTA report by Andrew Tobin, dozens of American Jews spent Friday in Hebron “practicing nonviolent resistance against Israel’s presence,” singing “The World is Built with Loving Kindness” in English and Hebrew, clearing scrap metal, weeds and debris from a dirt lot with several low-slung cement structures, singing Jewish and protest songs, and passing around bags of popcorn labeled “Cinema Hebron” below a “triumphant” sign that read “Cinema Hebron: Coming Soon.”

Indeed, the mission last Friday was to endow Hebron its “first Palestinian movie theater.” Eventually, soldiers and police officers demanded that the activists leave the area, and when said activists sat on the ground, locked arms and sang “Lo Yisa Goy el Goy Herev,” they were pulled up one by one and removed. The Israelis in the group were detained, the Americans were let go (which was their strategy).

Around 2 PM the American activists left the Israelis behind bars and proceeded to have a much deserved lunch.There are many things wrong with the above two paragraphs, and we encourage you to read the entire JTA report to better appreciate our story (Peter Beinart joins US Jews for civil rights-style protest in West Bank).

We spoke to Tzipi Shlisel, who is actually quoted by Tobin in his story, where he uses her as the obligatory reactionary settler’s counter-view:

“[The activists] think they’re doing a good thing, but they’re really helping the terrorists,” and, “I’ll tell you, in the Holocaust, Jewish people helped Hitler, too.”Tzipi Shlisel’s father, Shlomo Ra’anan HY”D, was stabbed to death by a local Arab back in 1998, the year when then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handed over most of Hebron to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat.

Shlisel recalls it was a scene similar to the devastating stabbing of 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel, in Kiryat Arba two weeks ago. But Tzipi Shlisel contacted JewishPress.com not because Tobin’s report treated her father’s murder with less empathy than it did the activists’ lunch, or Because Tobin used her as a necessary color stain on his canvas describing brave Jewish activists defying Israeli occupation with action and song.

Tzipi Shlisel insists Tobin’s report is partial, and that he missed out on a wealth of historic and cultural information, including the fact that the area the Jewish activists weeded so energetically was prized for its weed by a local Arab shepherd.The lands in question are in Tel Rumeida (biblical Hebron according to some authorities) which were purchased by the Hebron Jewish community 200 years ago, the first one in 1811, the second in 1816. During the 1949-67 Jordanian occupation, the Abu Aisha clan took over some of those lands.

The neighborhood of Admot Yishai was built on a small part of this land, which is otherwise known as the Tel Remeida settlement, over which the Arabs are fighting the Jewish community. “But we have aerial photographs of the entire area, including the ancient olive trees which were purchased along with the land, as is noted in the purchase documents, and these lands all belong to the Jewish community,” Shlisel insists.

Near the neighborhood there’s an area where the army built a bunker behind which there is a copper factory which was shut down for environmental reasons more than 30 years ago. “It generated crazy air pollution, Jews, Arabs, no one could breathe,” Shlisel recalls.“Eighteen years ago, after my father was stabbed to death by an Arab, the IDF created check points for the Arab traffic near our neighborhoods, and the area around the inactive copper factory is off limits to Arabs.

”Hebron is divided into the H1 and H2 zones. H2 compromises 80% of Hebron, and Jews are forbidden to go there. The Arabs, on the other hand, can move freely in much of H1.“

Now, when the activists arrived with their tremendous singing, they cleaned up the area thoroughly, it was truly amazing, but the local Arab, a member of the Abu Aisha clan, who’s been claiming that these are his lands, and even says they are registered as his with the city of Hebron, was not consulted.“Later, a police officer told me there was a military order (tzav aluf — lit. decree issued by a General) to evacuate the activists and that the Arab had filed a complaint with local police,” Shlisel said.JewishPress.com contacted the local Hebron police station chief who said there had been no complaint filed.

But a different source in the Hebron community who asked to remain anonymous told the JewishPress.com that the leftwing activists, one of whom was a former Tanzim activist from the Abu Aisha clan, convinced the Arab shepherd not to file a complaint. The fact is police and IDF soldiers did show up to remove the activists, and the Arab is seen asking police to chase away the American invaders.

“I heard the same Arab complaining that they pulled out his grazing weed from the ground, that he owns a herd which he keeps in Dura village, and the old factory is one of the area where his goats graze. Those peace activists did a cleanup job on his source of livelihood. They raked and tore up the weeds, and from a Western culture point of view they did a fantastic job, but from this Arab’s point of view they destroyed his grazing field,” Shlisel said.

As to the idea of “Cinema Hebron” (the name of the city in Arabic is Al-Khalil, meaning “friend,” after Abraham who was the friend of God, while Hebron is the colonialist-Zionist name used by the occupiers) Hebron is probably the most conservative religious Muslim city in all of Israel, where men and women are completely segregated, where Hamas rules, and where the very idea of attending a movie, never mind opening a movie theater, could get a man flogged.

That these American “liberators” would be so ignorant of the cultural and religious values of the people they have come to set free with song and hard weeding is possibly the funniest, even hallucinatory, idea of all.

“Which is why the only place where they could advocate having a movie theater in all of Hebron was near the Jewish neighborhoods, where at least no one would stone the living daylights out of them for their insolence, Tzippi Shlisel said, adding, “These human rights group who say they want to help the Arabs are actually ignorant of who these Arabs are. They step on their culture, trampling their values, with great glee and with a loud song on their lips.”

Robin Rowan is a recipient of the 'Secretary of Defense Medal for the Global War on Terrorism." After many years in government oversight for U.S. Inspectors Generals, Ms. Rowan conducts extensive research and mandates truth over politics. She is a political activist for the US- Israel relationship, serving as lay lobbing leader and six years on the National Council of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). (Views expressed do not reflect views of AIPAC.) An ordained minister, she speaks to Churches of all denominations on Israel and the importance of the Christian advocacy and engagement in politics. Webinars and a weekly podcast are in development. Sponsorship of this work is encouraged.
Robin can be contacted at Church4Israel @ gmail.com.

About the Author

Robin Rowan

Robin Rowan is a recipient of the 'Secretary of Defense Medal for the Global War on Terrorism." After many years in government oversight for U.S. Inspectors Generals, Ms. Rowan conducts extensive research and mandates truth over politics. She is a political activist for the US- Israel relationship, serving as lay lobbing leader and six years on the National Council of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). (Views expressed do not reflect views of AIPAC.) An ordained minister, she speaks to Churches of all denominations on Israel and the importance of the Christian advocacy and engagement in politics. Webinars and a weekly podcast are in development. Sponsorship of this work is encouraged.
Robin can be contacted at Church4Israel @ gmail.com.

I am a fan of Benjamin Netanyahu and pray/believe for him regularly, besides praying for Israel. Go sis and thanks for the invite.

Robert Kingstone

2018-05-10T05:39:21+0000

This is great! Blessed is he who blesses Israel. Thanks Robin for inviting me here!

Julie Marston Ottaway

2018-04-17T13:37:42+0000

Zeeshan Samuel

2018-03-08T18:21:05+0000

Paul Samuels

2017-09-09T16:48:57+0000

Tracy Destiny

2017-07-09T04:06:48+0000

Church for Israel was founded by Robin Rowan. She is a woman of integrity and has decades of knowledge and wisdom! I cannot recommend this ministry highly enough, except to say:
EXCELLENCE, PERSEVERANCE INTEGRITY & PASSION for ISRAEL are corner stones !!!

Joseph Castillo

2017-02-11T02:01:47+0000

Allan Roeder

2016-11-29T04:12:28+0000

god bless Israel,maybe with a president trump we will get back to full support,and recognize Jerusalem as the capital of israel.

John Bill Culton

2016-11-22T05:44:19+0000

Great we need to be friends with Israel tell your congressman to back Israel.

Nokomis Myers

2016-11-14T14:20:04+0000

Jay Monty

2016-01-15T22:03:33+0000

Mike Mendez

2015-04-12T19:51:17+0000

Raymond Reed

2015-04-01T03:33:04+0000

Gloria Gannon

2015-03-29T15:38:30+0000

Ross Dickens

2015-02-20T15:25:48+0000

I will stand with Israel, until death. No one can defeat God.

Haukur Hauksson

2014-12-26T20:53:15+0000

Brian Hassett

2014-12-14T04:20:38+0000

An excellent source of balanced news about Israel as well as the roll our government plays in support for Israel. This is a great source of news.

Dawn Ceiga Gleason

2014-11-13T21:17:06+0000

Love it! Great information. I appreciate Robin's expertise and insights.

Deborah Anthony

2014-11-13T20:19:39+0000

Great, accurate information. This page is to be trusted.

Tariq Ghori

2014-11-13T18:28:25+0000

God bless you lsreal and USA All others country ........ god always with you...

Martha Sue Miller

2014-11-13T17:36:25+0000

I really appreciate being able to get news from a source I trust.

Edmund Kis

2014-11-13T16:51:18+0000

Thank you Robin for the excellent work that you do in regards to Israel. I appreciate your insight and diligence to this subject, and we pray that the church will wake up and start contributing to what the Father is working on!!!

Angie Whitfield

2014-11-13T15:38:47+0000

Karen Hickman Loftis

2014-11-13T15:18:42+0000

Renee Bryant

2014-10-14T15:52:20+0000

Jewel Ficner

2014-09-29T15:06:54+0000

Great information from a knowledgeable source. Thanks Robin for presenting info we don't hear from mainstream media.

Neer Hason

2014-08-12T14:59:11+0000

God bless America and god bless Israel, god willing soon we will have a real leader back in our White House

David Blalock

2014-07-30T23:35:05+0000

CeCe Compton

2014-07-04T01:39:01+0000

Robin Rowan

2014-06-04T18:26:54+0000

Andra Cunningham

2014-05-25T22:45:58+0000

Karl K. Whiteman

2014-05-25T22:34:35+0000

Cindy Dellatore Johnson

2014-02-17T09:02:34+0000

Debi Smith

2014-01-03T22:12:01+0000

Celebrate JerUSAlem 2018 Fundraiser

It all started with Prayer.

We are celebrating the 70th Anniversary of Israel and the 50th Anniversary of unified Jerusalem.

President Trump has declared Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital and moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem in May 2018.

Celebrate with this commemorative pin.

This handcrafted Lapel Pin or Magnet is a gift for any donation of $10 or more.